Ex-Spartan played key role in Steinert athletic greatness

HAMILTON — He played on championship teams, yet some of Nick Ferrara’s favorite memories are of basketball practice at Steinert High School.

Indeed, a crowning moment for the two-sport athlete occurred when there was nobody in the bleachers at the Spartans’ gym.

“One day, I think I did a spin move and made a lay-up with my other hand,” Ferrara said. “I drove past Dahntay and it was the highlight of my career. And it happened in practice.”

Dahntay, of course, is Dahntay Jones, the ex-Steinert great who scored a school-record 1,675 points before moving on to collegiate and pro fame.

One of the teams that featured Ferrara and Jones — the 1996-97 boys’ basketball team — will be inducted when the Steinert High School Athletic Hall of Fame conducts its annual ceremonies April 13.

“He was so athletic,” Ferrara said of his teammate who is playing with the Atlanta Hawks. “He could jump like he had springs in his shoes. He was fast. He was muscular. For high school, you get some guys who are big and mature but he was a man amongst boys.”

Ferrara’s efforts were appreciated by his coaches and teammates.

“Nick was the epitome of a team player,” said Bob Hutchinson, a former member of the Spartans’ coaching staff. “He worked hard every day and never once complained about playing time. A large factor in the success of the ’97 team was the effort and sacrifice that team members like Nick put forth on a daily basis. He usually played Dahntay Jones every day in practice and that is no easy task. He helped make Dahntay a better player, as well as the entire team. Coaches rarely get a chance to reward or praise that type of player in the way that they deserve.”

Jones was part of the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 2006 and he helped Steinert to achieve much on the hardwoods in the late 1990s.

“I was on a team of all-stars,” Ferrara said of the group that went 25-3. “I certainly remember going to the state championship (in 1997) and playing against Malcolm X Shabazz. We gave it a good shot. We were one heck of a team.”

Ferrara, who is now a married father of two – including newborn Addison Nicole – still cherishes those days with Jones in basketball practice.

“Covering him every day in the low post was impossible,” Ferrara said. “He was 6-5 or 6-6 and I’m like 6-2. I’d try to slow him down. I’d grab his shirt, step on his foot. He could jump so high. Bar none, I’ve never played against anybody else that had that type of athletic ability.”

Ferrara played baseball at Salisbury State University and graduated with a degree in accounting, then went on to excel academically at Rutgers Camden School of Law.

Pick-up basketball and league games have been a near-constant in his life.

“I love playing whenever I can,” he said. “Although I was better at baseball, I enjoyed basketball a lot better.”

Those elbows can be thrown by basketball players and they can also gently poke into ribs.

“I like to say that it was my superior defense that made Dahntay the player he is today,” Ferrara said.

For information about the hall of fame and its induction dinner, visit www.steinertathletichof.com.